A: This is a question I wonder about a lot, and in fact, you could say it is the question underlying this column.

I am happy to report that this week, we have some great answers.

I was fortunate enough to get to meet some of the best entrepreneurs on the planet this week at the annual EY Strategic Growth Forum / Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. I attend a lot of entrepreneurship events, both as a columnist as well as as a speaker, and this one quickly has become my favorite. With top-notch presenters, great breakouts, an amazing venue in Palm Springs, and as I tweeted, “one person being more interesting than the next,” the SGF brings together some of the best entrepreneurs around.

Between my interviews and their sessions, I got some pretty interesting answers to my question.

Barbara Corcoran, as you well know, is one of the sharks on Shark Tank. She is also a frank and very successful entrepreneur who, as her book title says, turned a $1,000 loan into a billion dollar business. Barbara gave a fun talk at the event, sharing, among other things, how she had 20 jobs before she was 23. Smart, funny, and savvy, Barbara knows from entrepreneurship.

For her, the key, especially when making her Shark Tank investments, is not the idea or the team, it’s the entrepreneur. That is what she says she invests in – the person. To Barbara, great entrepreneurs are brave, courageous, and thrive under pressure.

They are also bold, as is she. One of my favorite stories of hers is when she was first starting out in real estate in New York. To get noticed above the din she would put out reports, “The Corcoran Report.” These reports would often discuss celebrity real estate goings-on in the city and would be picked up by the press. She got quoted and got known.

Guerrilla marketing at its best.

Steve Howe is the smart, charismatic Managing Partner of Ernst & Young LLP in the US and chairs the EY Americas Operating Executive. Steve shared his and EY’s passion for entrepreneurs with me and gave me a really good answer when I asked him what makes an entrepreneur great.

“Our Entrepreneur of the Year program is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year,” he told me, “and so we commissioned a study with the Harvard Business review that looked at just that.” The EY/HBR Impact Report entitled “The Entrepreneur’s Purpose” had five key findings for what made someone an “Entrepreneur of the Year” type of entrepreneur:

“They empower people.” Yes, great entrepreneurs are great leaders, but they do that best by empowering the people around them

“They are purpose driven.” Profit is great, but purpose is better

“They thrive in resource-constrained environments.” They figure out how to make it work

“They are obsessed with talent.” They don’t just like good talent, they are obsessed with it

“They de-risk the risk.” They are prudent risk takers.

A good example of this is Stephanie Lewis. She and two friends started Her Campus Media while undergrads at Harvard. Realizing that there was a market need for content specifically aimed for college-aged women, she and her partners have created a niche media empire, with some 300 college “chapters” now nationwide, undergrad writers as brand ambassadors, events and more. Her Campus now reaches some 16 million women.

How did they do it? By combining a market need, a great idea, and empowering a great team.

Andy Taylor is the executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Alamo Rent a Car, and National Car Rental, which, combined, I was surprised to learn, is the largest car rental company in the U.S.

Andy and I swapped stories about our dads, the entrepreneurs. Taylor’s father started Enterprise with one employee after WWII. Taylor and his company, like the entrepreneurs in the EY study, are obsessed with finding and nurturing great talent. And also like the entrepreneurs in the study, Taylor’s company is driven far more by values than by profit.

This is not to say profit is not important, of course it is and must be for any entrepreneur. But in answering the question “what makes a great entrepreneur?” we see other things at play.

For example, Enterprise has created a company that really supports its employees and fosters intrapreneurship – the idea that motivating your staff as you would an entrepreneur is what works. For enterprise, that means sharing local profits, giving branch managers a lot of autonomy, and promoting from within for a job well done.

So, what makes for a an entrepreneur great? Yes, it is the usual suspects – passion, obsession, risk-taking, teamwork and creativity, but it’s also something else, something a little less expected:

Purpose.

Steve Strauss, @Steve Strauss on Twitter, is a lawyer specializing in small business and entrepreneurship and has been writing for USATODAY.com for 20 years. E-mail: sstrauss@mrallbiz.com. Website: TheSelfEmployed.